1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to digital data storage, and in particular to capturing digital data from a live presentation. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for converting transmitted rasterized data into a format suitable for storage in an application software format.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many live presentations are made using a laptop connected to a beam projector or large screen monitor. For example, FIG. 1 depicts a system in which a computer 102 sends image data via cable 104 to a digital projector 106 for projection onto a screen 108.
The display projected by digital projector 106 is analogous to the display of a cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor or a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor. The monitor (or projector) displays a sequence of horizontal lines made up of many points called pixels. This sequence of horizontal lines is called a “grid” in an LCD monitor or digital projector, and is called a “raster” in a CRT monitor. The complete sequence of horizontal lines is rapidly scanned to avoid flicker.
File data stored in computer 102, such as file data from a PowerPoint™ file, is first converted into a stream of data that controls each pixel in a projected display. When in this form, the stream of data is referred to as being “rasterized.”
Often, after a live presentation, many in the audience ask for a copy of the material that was presented. Such a request is relatively easy to fulfill if the presentation was solely a showing of a PowerPoint™ or similar file. That is, the presenter only has to send the requester a floppy disk or e-mail attachment with the presentation, assuming the presenter remembers the request and still has the requester's contact information.
However, if the presentation displays images from a non-computer digital data source, such as a digital camera, memory stick reader, etc., or if the presentation is of images that are not stored on the computer, such as a presentation from another computer or passed-through streaming audio or video data from the Internet, then making a copy of the presentation to send to the requester becomes difficult, if not impossible.
Furthermore, a presenter might manipulate a canned program during the presentation, making a saved program file different from the presentation. That is, while showing a PowerPoint™ program, the presenter may skip over a slide that is inappropriate for his audience, or may use a mouse pointer to draw attention to a part of a photo or drawing while discussing that slide. If the requester were only to review the original stored PowerPoint™ program, any additional information given by the presenter would be missing from the stored program.
Thus, what is needed is a method and system that permits capturing rasterized digital data and storing that data into a known file format that is easily communicated to another party. Preferably, the system would capture previously stored image data, as well as real-time manipulations of the image data. It would also be beneficial if such a system provided an easy way to send the captured image data to a requester.